Rio Ferdinand has defended the Football Association's decision not to charge Wayne Rooney following his elbow on James McCarthy at Wigan Athletic on Saturday. The defender used Twitter to remind those who think the governing body has a blind spot when it comes to Manchester United that he was banned following a similar incident last season.

Ferdinand was retrospectively charged for striking out at Craig Fagan in January 2010 and given a three-match ban by the FA, which was extended to four games and his appeal was deemed "frivolous". The United centre-back tweeted: "The FA 'bottle' it with Man utd is all I keep hearing/reading....well you never said they 'bottle' it when I got a 4game ban last season..."